Author: Morgan Matson
Published: May 4, 2010
Pages: 352
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Four months ago Amy Curry had a perfect teenage life. Now her Dad is dead, her mother has moved across the country and her twin brother is in rehab. To top it off her mother expects her to drive across the country with a stranger. The book opens as Amy meets Roger, a college guy who has problems of his own. They decide to detour from the trip Amy's mother planned and see the country as they make their way from California to Connecticut. The book follows their road trip and their discovery of each other along the way.
Morgan Matson has created such an engaging story that I was sucked right into the backseat and went along for the ride. There was no fast paced action to pull you along, but I still was so drawn to the book that I could not put it down. Instead, it was the story and the characters that kept me reading. Amy and Roger's characters had so many layers, it was a joy to see them revealed as the trip progressed. The secondary characters were equally well developed, from the video game player on a quest to the topiary creating teen, each was unique in their own way. The slow building romance followed the pace of the journey, and was wonderfully done. The journal kept along the way was genius, it added so much to the story, from the receipts to the doodles, it allowed us to peak into the journey through the minds of Amy and Roger. And the play lists helped set the mood of the trip as it progressed.
This was a great book about grief, friendship, heartbreak and romance. It tells the story of how to move on with life by letting go. And it reminds us that the best discoveries are the ones we make when we aren't looking for them. I suggest you read this one, it is a journey you will not want to miss.
Rating: Outstanding, don't miss this one.
After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues - and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew. Printz medalist John Green returns with the brilliant wit and searing emotional honesty that have inspired a new generation of listeners. My Review: Quentin and Margo Roth Spiegelman grew up as next door neighbors. They were friends until the age of ten when Margo ditched him for the cool crowd. Over the next few years he watched her from afar, mesmerized by her antics. The story finds them on the cusp of high school graduation. Margo is the girl that every high school has, beautiful, popular figure who seems to have the world at her fingertips. One night she appears at his bedroom window, asking him to join her in a night of pranks to get even with those who have wronged her. This experience provides new hope to Quentin that their friendship can be renewed, but the next day Margo is gone, run away from home and her life. But she has left some clues for him, and as he unravels them he finds that he never really knew her at all. His first fear is that she has committed suicide, a reasonable thought with what she was experiencing in her life at the time. He follows the clues, fearful that he will stumble on her dead body. Finally the clues lead Quentin and his geeky buddies on a hilarious across the country road trip. We watch his journey as he strives to find Margo, and in doing so he finds himself. This book was beautifully written. The details used to describe moments found in real life created a masterpiece. The wonderful, quirky character development made even minor ones come to life and I could see them in the halls of my local high school. There were many moments when I laughed out loud while reading. The story stayed with me for days after I read it. On the surface it seemed to be a mystery to solve, but on reflection the true, deeper meaning of the book becomes evident. It was almost like I was so interested in him finding Margo that I almost missed the point of the exercise. While you may want to speed through this book along with the story, I suggest you slow down and savor each moment, novels like this don't come along everyday. My Rating: An outstanding read you will not want to miss this one
Author: John Green
Published: October 16, 2008
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Genre:
Pages: 305
Rating: 5/5 stars
Description from Goodreads:
Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows.
